2024 AAUP Updates

A new report undertakes an in-depth review of a politically and ideologically driven assault unparalleled in US history. If sustained, this assault threatens the very survival of meaningful higher education in the state, with dire implications for the entire country.

The AAUP has issued a request for proposals to obtain proposals from external vendors for the purpose of adopting a replacement for its existing website content management system.

A statement released today reaffirms the "right to hear" principle concerning the presence of controversial outside speakers on college campuses, and expands on the relationship between controversies involving invited speakers and increasing partisan political intrusion in higher education.

The AAUP condemns the climate of intimidation that now attempts to silence people who express unpopular views on the current conflict in the Middle East. College and university leaders have no obligation to speak out on the most controversial issues of the day. Their duty is to protect the academic freedom, free speech, and associational rights of faculty and students to speak on all topics of public or political interest without fear of intimidation, retaliation, or punishment.

The AAUP joins four other education advocacy groups, spanning from pre-K to higher education, in launching a Freedom to Learn pledge, highlighting how far-right attacks on public education and academic freedom are part of the same extremist push to hurt learning and undermine trust in public schools.

We were saddened to learn of the death of longtime AAUP leader John T. McNay this past Friday, October 27. John was active in the University of Cincinnati chapter, a former president of the Ohio state conference, a member of the AAUP's governing Council, and the chair of the Committee on Government Relations.

As the Israel-Hamas war rages and campus protests proliferate, institutional authorities must refrain from sanctioning faculty members for expressing politically controversial views and should instead defend their right, under principles of academic freedom, to do so.

AFT president Randi Weingarten and AAUP president Irene Mulvey released a statement condemning the attack on Arizona State University professor David Boyles by Turning Point USA operatives.